6 Ways Birth Will Rock Your World

6 Ways Birth Will Rock Your World

Birth is a completely new and unknown experience. There’s one thing we can reassure you, it will be one wild ride! One of the best ways to embrace the unpredictable nature of birth is to realize that when it comes to having a baby, you’re gonna have to do the opposite of what you’re used to.

Instead of Holding It In, Let It OUT.

From a very early age as little girls we are taught to cross our legs. When we’re in the middle of a grocery store and we have to pee, we hold it. If we’re feeling sad but we’re in the middle of a busy day, we push our feelings deep inside (hello dark sunglasses).

Welcome to birth – where you’ve got to let it all hang out. With birth, your bodily needs are front and center. If you have to pee, you pee. When your waters break, they’re gonna flow all over the floor like a waterfall. When you have to push, it will be the strangest, most undeniable, most uncontrollable sensation you’ve ever felt.

Start practicing this now ~ when you are sad, let yourself cry. When you’re hungry, stop what you’re doing and feed yourself. During pregnancy and birth, everything that happens revolves around you and your baby’s needs. And that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Instead of Thinking It, Start Feeling It

By the time you show up to the hospital or birth center (or take another fateful lap around your living room) you’ll have had 10 months to plan, and analyze, and anticipate what’s going to happen during birth. You will have assembled your team and packed your labor snacks, considered waterbirth vs. epidural, and figured out every possible logistic.

In the last days of pregnancy, you’re going to have to let your rational mind take a little vacation. Send her off to the Mayan Riviera. Meanwhile, you’re going to stop thinking with your mind, and start feeling with your heart. Your body and your heart are the ones who will help you get through the rollercoaster ride that is birth. Trust me, your mind will return to you when it’s said and done … and she will be nice and rested so she can help figure out the best sushi place that delivers in the middle of the night.

Don’t Plan Ahead

Yes, write your birth plan and give it to your birth team or doula. But once you’re in labor, you should ask someone to tape something over the clock so you can’t see what time it is. TIME DOESN’T MATTER. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT DOESN’T MATTER. All that matters is what you are doing in this very second, during this very contraction, or in the space between when you get that sweet break.

Be Here Now. Does that expression make you want to throw a chai tea latte at someone? Ok. Go with that feeling. Figure out what about it makes you crazy. Because when push comes to shove, you’re gonna have to learn to live there.

Trust, Completely

I know you are a smart cookie. I know you have the right to change your mind. But realize that during labor you will be another version of yourself – Labor You. Labor You will have to trust that Pregnant You made great decisions for Labor You ahead of time – that she chose an awesome doctor or midwife, chose a great hospital, made a reasonable birth plan and chose a great doula. While it might seem a lot to ask that you trust all of those people completely … try doing this instead. TRUST YOURSELF. Trust that you made the best decisions you could at the time you made them. And then let it go. Be vulnerable. Let it hang out. Give in. Let GO.

Repeat After Me …

 

This makes me giggle. But do it.

Learn to Love Someone Before You Ever Meet Them

You are doing all of this for a little person whose little nose you don’t even know the shape of yet. You may feel like you know this little person intimately already. Or you might not be convinced that you aren’t giving birth to a cat or a fish (don’t look at me that way – true story).

Sister friend, the love for your baby is the craziest thing you will ever experience in life. And it’s a gift that you can’t open yet, not till its time. It’s like Christmas morning that could happen at any moment … at 3 pm on a Tuesday, in the middle of a thunderstorm, or at 2 o’clock in the morning under a gorgeous full moon. No worries … your soft, squishy little baby is the most delicious thing you will ever experience in your whole life. And that love you’ll feel --- you’ll be completely unprepared for it. J

Trust me, I’m right.

Love, Kate